Apps Revisited

There's an interesting dynamic going on now in the world of Apps, and it's an important metric for musicians. The key takeaway is that it's more important to have a App your fans want to use than to have an App.

This applies to both Native Apps and Web Apps, although it's more critical in the Native App world because of the rating systems that are part of the App Stores. What's the point of having an App if it's only going to get a one star rating, or worse?

When Apps first really started to take off (remember, the iTunes App Store is only 5 years old!) there was tremendous pressure to build an App and get it on the App stores. It was like - if you didn't have an App, who were you? Now, those Apps are looking a little tired, a little all-the-same. And, the usage statistics are sobering - the 50 billionth App was downloaded this past May, however one in four Apps are downloaded and used once and then never used again, and 84 percent of iPhone owners use less than 20 Apps.

The effect of this is a new dynamic focused on making Apps useful and easy. Many organizations are replacing their initial Apps with new, focused designs and capabilities. And to a great extent, this dynamic plays out better for companies developing custom, vs prepackaged content based Apps. Of course, App development is still expensive, and a thorough strategy includes iPhone, Android and Mobile Web Apps. Whether a custom App for an Enterprise client or a platform App designed to meet the needs of an industry segment, apps must be beautiful, easy to use, and most importantly - useful.

The Artist Portal Message Board

The Artist Portal Message Board went live this week! 

We always wanted to create a dialog among the Artist community where you could ask questions, share insights, and let other Artists know what was working and what was a waste of time as you marketed your music to fans using the mobile ecosystem. When we were designing the Artist Portal Dashboard, we included a Message Board in the design so that you could see and join the conversations when you logged in.

The Message Board is at the bottom of the Dashboard page, right underneath the chart we present that shows your fan growth. For starters, it's a simple board where you can post and respond to messages. Later, if it gets too large, we'll expand it to deal with specific topics, like you see with the large Message Boards on other sites.

Adva Mobile will be monitoring the Message Board also, so you can ask us anything. It should be a great place to ask us questions about mobile campaigns, mobile best practices, new features you're looking for, how something works, etc.

Anything at all. Just ask - us, or your fellow musicians on Adva Mobile.